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The Indian School of Business (ISB) has celebrated Graduation Day 2017 with the passing out of the largest ever group of 1014 students, comprising 898 of PGP Class of 2017, 61 of PGPMAX Class of 2016 and 55 of MFAB Class of 2016.

With this, the ISB alumni network has expanded to 8500 plus with presence in 41 countries across the world.

Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State (independent charge) for Industry and Commerce was Chief Guest at the ceremony in Mohali campus on April 9 and Rahul Bajaj, Head, Bajaj Group, and Member, Executive Board, ISB, presided over the ceremony at ISB's Hyderabad campus on the previous day.

Addressing the gathering, the Minister said, “I would like the young minds of this country to build business houses and create more jobs. India needs several entrepreneurs who can become fountain heads of commercially relevant ideas that will make a difference to the economy and the country and this is my expectation from the ISB graduates.”

Welcoming the gathering, ISB Dean Professor Rajendra Srivastava said, “As future leaders, you need to learn how to grow and compete each day. If you have to succeed in this competitive environment, dream big, have the tenacity to convert your dreams into reality and face challenges with conviction.

“Each one of you is unique and hence do not try to live someone else’s life and do not let others’ opinions drown down your inner voice. Challenge status quo and while being a good manager is the basic requirement, being a good leader is what ultimately matters. Be conscious of the need for utmost integrity and diligence in your personal and professional life,” he added.

Adi Godrej, in his address, stressed the importance of team work, knowledge and leadership. “As a management student, one of the key things that I had learnt is the power of team work and the importance of building teams and retaining people, an idea that I imbibed early in my career and it is now with me all through.

“Please remember that Knowledge is Power and Leadership is about doing the tough things which need to be done and no one else wants to do, not just the popular ones. It is about telling the truth about how things are, not what people want to hear,” he added.

Referring to the role of family businesses in the economy, he said, “Family managed businesses are the ‘unsung heroes’ of the Indian economy. They make up more than two-thirds of the world’s companies, employing half the world's workforce and contribute to well over half the world's GDP.”

The Day commenced with the ceremonial procession led by the ISB Dean followed by the Chairman, Chief Guest, members of the board, faculty, and students wearing their graduation regalia in blue and black. They were greeted with a huge applause from the audience on entering the venue of the ceremony.

In Hyderabad, Rahul Bajaj called for a light but effective regulation of the private sector. “We have been over-regulated and under-governed. We should move to being lightly regulated and well governed, where the efficient and honest are encouraged and the inefficient and dishonest are penalised,” he said.

Blaming “a misdirected socialist pattern of industrialisation, especially between 1970 and 1990,” for the low per capita income in India, he said resources were wasted on the public sector while the private sector growth was obstructed.

“We developed a language of rights, not responsibilities, and created a huge burden of distortions and subsidies in the economy,” he added.

Calling for dismantling of the old system he said, “If the private sector has progressed it is because it functions on the basis of merit. There is also no place for crony capitalism,” he added.

About mounting bad debts in Public sector banks, Bajaj said politicians and businessmen, in collusion with banks officials, have led to “creation of bad loans, whose cost is ultimately borne by the honest tax payer, leaving us with the hot potato of the twin balance sheet problem.”

Saying that “disruption is the order of the day,” he pointed out that it is in the very nature of an open economy that the forces of change will accelerate. Detecting “a palpable momentum of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country”, The new graduates were better equipped for the current environment than most people as they have been trained to be pro-change and pro-continuous learning in their outlook. “The world is open for business. It values innovation and competitiveness. Where have Google, Apple and Alibaba come from?” he asked.

The Graduation Day also saw meritorious students receiving awards for having excelled in academics, extra-curricular activities and for having demonstrated exemplary leadership skills throughout the year.

Following is the list of awards:

ISB Scholar of Excellence: The ISB Scholar of Excellence is awarded in recognition of outstanding academic performance throughout the year.

The ISB Scholar of Excellence for the PGP Class of 2017 was awarded to Bharathi Rajan Muthu Krishnan, Rupinder Arora and Sourabh Gupta. Swati Gupta was awarded with the PGPMFAB 2016 Scholar of Excellence while Pankaj Poddar was awarded the ISB Scholar of Excellence for PGPMAX Class of 2016

The Dean’s List comprises students who make it to the top ten percentile of the Class for their academic accomplishments. This year a total of 106 students made it to the prestigious list across the PGP, PGPMAX and PGP MFAB programmes.

Chairman’s All Rounder Award PGP class of 2017

The Chairman’s All Rounder award was given to Sarthak Ahuja, Shyam Nambiar and Deepansha Trivedi, who had demonstrated exceptional all round leadership skills through the year

The ‘ISB Young Leaders’ and ‘ISB Torchbearer’ awards were given to over 67 students of the PGP Class of 2017, who had contributed to the School in different ways, through the year. The Best Professional Club award was given to Business Technology Club (BTC) and Consulting Club while the Best Social Club award was given to the Music Club and Dance Club.

Professor of the year

As a part of an ISB tradition, students honoured their favourite faculty through the” Professor of the Year” awards.

PGP Class of 2017

Professor Sarang Deo of ISB and Professor Anjani Jain were voted the “Professor of the Year for Core Courses” for Hyderabad and Mohali campus respectively. Professor Piyush Kumar received the “Professor of the Year for Elective Course’ award across both the campuses”.

PGPMAX and PGP MFAB

Professor Dishan Kamdar who is also the Deputy Dean (Academic programmes) was voted the “Professor of the Year’ by PGPMAX Class of 2016 and PGP MFAB Class of 2016.

The Academic Associate of the year

These awards were given away by students to those who supported them in their learning throughout the year. Gaurav Tyagi was awarded by the PGPMAX Class of 2016 the PGP Class of 2017.

Merit Scholarships in Information Technology from SRITNE

The Srini Raju Centre for Information Technology and the Networked Economy (SRITNE) at ISB, awarded three merit scholarship to students opting to major in the subject of the IT. The awardees from the PGP Class of 2017 are Mohit Satish Patni, Pramod Gubbi Suresh and Mayank Thakur.

SREI Infrastructure award

SREI Infrastructure awarded three top student teams from the PGP Class of 2017, who contributed to its Annual sector-wise Report of 201